“After the construction of the Dawson Road, we the Métis, were employed by the C.P.R.. We did this by means of ox carts, travelling back and forth on the Dawson Road up to Lake of the Woods. From Lake of the Woods, those provisions were sent to Rat Portage. Once the C.P.R. railway finished, we had no more hauling to do.”

Alexis Carrière, 1935

Source: Carrière, A. (1935, May). Témoignage d’Alexis Carrière et Lettre [écrit à l’occasion de…]. Original letter is in French though an English translation was made by …and accompanies the testimony. Carrière family collection.

Métis traders, circa 1872, southern Manitoba. Source: “No. 165 Half Breed Traders” and “No. 164 Half Breed Traders”, (1872-1876), North American Boundary Commission photographs, P8167/5, Archives of Manitoba. Retrieved from www.mhs.ca/docs/mb_history/05/metislands.shtml

A group of Metis traders and their families were photographed by the 1872-1874 Boundary Commission photographers. Source: Archives of Manitoba, Boundary Commission 164, N14100. O’Toole, D. (2012). The Red River Jig Around the Convention of “Indian” Title: The Métis and Half-Breed Dos à Dos.  Manitoba History , Number 69, Summer 2012. Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. Retrieved July 1, 2020 from The Red River Jig Around the Convention of "Indian" Title: The Metis and Half-Breed Dos a Dos

Letter from Mr. Alexis Carrière, dated March 25, 1935. Mr. Carrière hauled supplies and materials up and down the Dawson Road for many years while they were building the C.P.R. railroad from eastern Canada, across the same terrain that had been impassable for so long. The headquarters for the building of the railroad was at Rat Portage (Kenora, Ontario) which was the destination during that period. The reason for this letter is unclear, as is who it was sent to. Since it appears that Mr. Carrière is both sharing recollections of having worked on the Dawson Trail as well as re-stating a long-held grievance in the community about the heinous death of Roger Goulet (at the hands of??), the surveyor and school inspector that was so beloved by his community prior to the arrival of surveyors from the East.

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